Earlier this month, it was announced that a U.S. company will soon be introducing a new product: video games for infants. The idea - called KneeBouncers - is from the mind of Jim Robinson, who said, "KneeBouncers was created for the ittiest of the bittiest. Our goal is to provide you and your family with a whole lot of thumping, bumping, crashing, bashing, smashing, splashing, popping, bopping, wiggling and especially giggling." Most of the activities found in the games will be basic flash animations that move at the press of a button. The company likens this to a baby turning a page in a book.

Similarly, Fisher-Price has created a video game for toddlers that is played on the Nintendo Wii. As part of its Laugh and Learn series, Fisher-Price has added the Smart Bounce and Spin Pony. This is a video game with a controller that the toddler sits and bounces on in order to control the activities on screen. When the child sees an image on TV, she can spin some things or poke other things on the pony.

Pardon me for saying, but this idea - video games for babies - is not only the worst idea of the year, but possibly of our lifetime.

What are they thinking? Do we not have enough trouble with kids being addicted to television, choosing video games over homework, sitting complacently in front of the boob tube instead of engaging in creative play outside? In an effort to make babies "smarter," these products show the idiocy of the adults who create them.

I know, I know. Some of you will vociferously disagree with me, pointing to a variety of research studies that prove me wrong. In fact, I found one by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which conducted a research study of 800 children between the ages of 7 and 12 over a one-year period and concluded that kids in that age range who are serious gamers are actually smarter than those who aren't. They apparently have heightened development of muscular coordination and can concentrate as keenly as an astronaut or fighter pilot. The study also pointed out that video games are educational tools and their complexity leads to good attention spans. And, rather than becoming reclusive oddities who attend school just because laws dictate they have to, gamers are more social, have more friends, work harder at school and are at the top of their classes. The study also said that kids who are addicted to video games (that is, playing between an hour and a half and two hours a day) are spending time doing something constructive with their minds and bodies rather than sitting placidly in front of the television.

Similarly, ABC News did a story a few years ago, "Do Video Games Make Kids Smarter?" They interviewed a "social critic" named Steven Johnson, author of the book Everything Bad is Good for You, whose premise is that television and video game playing are not necessarily harmful to your children. Johnson claimed that video games make children smarter: "You have to manage multiple objectives at the same time...and you have to make decisions every second of the game." A child's "fluid intelligence" (fancy words for "problem solving") is exhibited when playing video games. Explained James Paul Gee, curriculum and instruction professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: "They have to discover the rules of the game and how to think strategically. Like any problem solving that is good for your head, it makes you smarter." ABC News even theorized in its report that one reason why intelligence test scores were rising in the United States was because "studies show that video games make people more perceptive, training their brains to analyze things faster."

Ah...but, like all intriguing topics of discussion, there is a very powerful opposing viewpoint that I believe makes a stronger case against babies playing video games. Researchers at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital in Boston, and Harvard University, presented the results of their study of 872 children. The children were assessed at regular intervals between birth and three years. And while the American Academy of Pediatrics has lobbied for ten years against any television for children in this age range, it was discovered in this study that children are still being plopped in front of the tube for significant amounts of time - 1.2 hours a day on average. Why? Turns out, most parents believe educational television is good for their child's development - that they are in effect making their kids smarter.

But...are they? No. The data from this research study indicated that children who watch educational television are "no more adept in vocabulary or visual and motor abilities tests than those who had not." So Harvard researchers told parents that if they were buying special educational videos to make their kids smarter, they should stop - it wasn't helping their little ones become the next Einstein. And, speaking of Einstein, the Walt Disney Company recently announced that it would offer refunds to parents who bought any of their popular Baby Einstein videos on the notion (promoted by Disney marketing) that these videos made their kids smarter. Because they didn't.

Lest you think there's a major difference between educational videos for infants and video games for babies, there's isn't. Jon Hamilton, the science correspondent for NPR, contends that learning video games fall in the same category as educational videos. Hamilton said, "...putting them in front of some sort of video device does not seem to be the ideal method [for learning]." Tufts University Professor Emeritus of child development David Elkind adds, "...the problem with programs like Baby Einstein is they become addictive [because] parents use them as babysitters, and kids sit in front of them for hours at a time, and that can do real harm."

Hamilton contends that babies learn language best from person-to-person involvement. Video game playing or watching television is passive learning whereas human interaction not only is better for babies learning to read, write, count, etc., but that human interaction also gives babies the motivation to learn. In addition, Marie Evans Schmidt, the lead author of the Harvard study, cautions parents that "infants watching TV may be at risk of obesity, sleep disturbances and possible attention problems."

Speaking strictly from a parent's point of view, you children begin separating from you when they begin school and by the time they're teenagers, they are off with their friends. There are so many more interesting things to do than hang with mom or dad - they would rather be with their friends, play video games, shop, text, skate board, the list of activities that don't involve mom or dad is endless! With so few years available to spend with your child, why would you want to fill them with video games? After all, what is more precious to a parent (and, hopefully to the child) than reading Good Night Moon for the thousandth time? Your child has plenty of time to learn about video games whereas those early years of bonding are limited and disappear way too quickly.